Spain

“If you visit only one foreign country in your lifetime, make it Spain,”

We agree with this sentiment apocryphally attributed to Ernest Hemingway via his character Don Ernesto. He might have added that after your first visit, you might not be tempted to go anywhere else. No other country is quite as multi-faceted and flamboyantly romantic as Spain.

The visitor to Spain will notice that there is not just one Spain but many – and indeed, Spaniards themselves often speak of “Las Españas”. Partly, this is down to an almost obsessive regionalism, stemming from the creation in the late 1970s of seventeen autonomous regions – with their own governments, budgets and cultural ministries. You might think you are on holiday in Spain – your hosts may be adamant that you’re actually visiting, say Catalunya, and will point to a whole range of differences in language, culture and artistic traditions. Indeed, the old days of a unified nation, governed with a firm hand from Madrid, seem to have gone forever. Does any of this matter for visitors? As a rule – not really, since few tourist have the time to immerse themselves in contemporary Spanish political discourse. >>>

>>> Far more important is to look beyond the clichés of paella, matadors, sangría and siesta if you’re to get the best out of a visit to this amazingly diverse country. The upside to this, of course is that a visit to Spain offers many different experiences including cultures, cuisines and landscapes. It is a great deal, like visiting many countries.All of these Spains are still fully acquirable, but they hardly exhaust the list of treasures and pleasures of this limitless country. Let us help you find ‘your’ Spain. See the lush valleys of the Atlantic coast, taste a Manchego cheese paired with a lovely Priorat red, wander the weird dream landscapes of Old Castile or get lost exploring the Andalucian “pueblos blancos”.